Today's comic

Tom the Fanboy · Post by **Tom the Fanboy** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:20 pm

Alina forgot another special power of the Chimera.
The ability to swap a head from one side to the other!

<_<
;p

Lei · Post by **Lei** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:34 pm

Meeep! Ok, I just read your comic all the way through, and I may be madly in love with you. Great stuff! (I'm a tabletop, LARP, and MMORPG gamer) I especially loved the Browncoat interlude. And the wookiee ninjas!

Narf the Mouse · Post by **Narf the Mouse** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:08 pm

*Throw!*Throw!*Throw!*Throw!*Throw!*Throw!*Throw!*

Tom the Fanboy · Post by **Tom the Fanboy** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:10 pm

I have in fact, seen an unconscious paladin swung by his ankles as a club because the DM ruled his +5 Plate made him a +5 weapon.

Also, on Joel's side of things, My group often uses the Wits+Duh roll to see if your character thinks he's got a good idea. Anyone who actually ROLLS the dice deserves what they get for not catching on.

Dustman · Post by **Dustman** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:33 pm

I remember this one time, a few friends and I were playing a sort of low-powered campaign (no magic at all for us, but the enemy had it sometimes). We had to ambush this guy from the Fighter's Guild, I forget why. Anyway, after pulling a rope tight as he was riding down the road to knock him off his horse, my friends had him in melee and I was shooting him with arrows from the branches of a nearby tree. The melee guys were getting dangerously low on hit-points (vitality actually, it was a modified system), so I said "You know what? For my move action, I'm going to throw this grappling hook into that branch over there, and for my attack action I'm going to swing into the guy and knock him out."

After the DM crunched some quick numbers, and gave me the patented "eyebrow-raised-do-you-really-want-to-do-that" look, I went for it. I took a few points of damage, but it actually knocked the Fighter's Guild guy out. Nice.

There was also another time, in a regular DnD campaign, where we were storming this necromancer's log cabin (seriously), and we made flaming arrows and a fire-pit using a few pints of lantern oil and a wool blanket torn into rags. It was great; the house burned down, and there were flaming zombies shambling everywhere. My gnomish wizard friend accidentally shot me in the bum with a crossbow, and I pulled the bolt out and stabbed a skeleton with it. After we caught the necromancer, we were interrogating him and I got to cast light on his eyeball (I was the cleric; there was an awesome turn undead moment in there too where I cleared out about six skeletons that were trying to flank various members of the group)

I don't think there was ever a time when we went about a battle the normal way.

*Sigh* The group split up after we got back from Iraq; I haven't played a single RP session since, unless you count a couple of forum games. Serious bummer.

Tom the Fanboy · Post by **Tom the Fanboy** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:04 am

FLING ALLY [General]
You can launch your comrades into the air as if they were thrown weapons.
Prerequisites: Str 19, Rock Hurling or racial ability to throw rocks, size Large or larger (goliaths qualify by virtue of their powerful build racial trait)

It's from the Races of Stone book for DnD 3.5

Aldagrim · Post by **Aldagrim** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:03 pm

One, that is really cool that Fling Ally is actually in a book. Two, the last line of the strip today is so filled with awesome that I made it my signature.

Narf the Mouse · Post by **Narf the Mouse** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:22 pm

This comic needs a 'Made of Win and Awesome' sticker.

Alina P · Post by **Alina P** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:23 pm

This comic needs a 'Made of Win and Awesome' sticker.

Yay! Thanks!

I have in fact, seen an unconscious paladin swung by his ankles as a club because the DM ruled his +5 Plate made him a +5 weapon.

Using a paladin as a melee weapon... That's a special kind of improvised weapon!

And, Lei,: Welcome to the forums!! Glad you too are a fan of wookie ninjas![/quote]

Tom the Fanboy · Post by **Tom the Fanboy** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:05 am

This comic shows one of the "problems" that D&D 4th ed is supposedly going to fix.

Rather than having a set number of spells per day, casters will be able to get spells back after nearly every encounter.

Yes that's right, you'll have recharge times for your magic, just like in an MMORPG.

If it comes up again I'll just make a new thread.

Thanatos5150 · Post by **Thanatos5150** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:23 pm

Tom the Fanboy wrote:This comic shows one of the "problems" that D&D 4th ed is supposedly going to fix.

Rather than having a set number of spells per day, casters will be able to get spells back after nearly every encounter.

Yes that's right, you'll have recharge times for your magic, just like in an MMORPG.

If it comes up again I'll just make a new thread.

GiantITP has a number of 4th ed. discussions pretty much every time a new article comes out - but I've never seen that one.
They REALLYbetter balance that out, like only being able to know/cast a much smaller number of spells. Seriously, magicks are strong enough as they are.

Also - go rogues!

But, yeah, that is an awesome, all-too-framiliar sensation. Rest -> One Fight -> Rest.

Tom the Fanboy · Post by **Tom the Fanboy** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 3:12 pm

I've never had that problem though. Every time I play a caster I have a number of mundane weapons (crossbow is your friend) or magic items to supplement my spells. It could be that my GMs were not pushing the encounters to the limit though. We never went through any modules or extensive dungeons after all. I can only think of one dungeon my party had to actually camp in, and that was way back in AD&D.

Narf the Mouse · Post by **Narf the Mouse** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:18 pm

Spells will not have recharge times. They will be usable Per-Round, Per-Encounter or Per-Day.

(Or at least, that's the last word I heard, straight from the dev-blogs)

Tom the Fanboy · Post by **Tom the Fanboy** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:43 pm

Narf the Mouse wrote:Spells will not have recharge times. They will be usable Per-Round, Per-Encounter or Per-Day.

Well.... that's what their recharge times will be then, one round, one encounter, one day...

My groups will probably avoid changing over until late, late in the year after the core books are released. After all, we'll have to wait at least a year for the supplements we need to convert our crazy existing campaigns.

Narf the Mouse · Post by **Narf the Mouse** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:16 pm

...I suppose that does count as a count-down. If I remember correctly, and I think I do, all powers will follow that pattern.

Which gets rid of a major imbalance between the combat and casting classes.

UnicornEmily · Post by **UnicornEmily** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:36 pm

Okay, that hydra in the first panel of today's strip is officially awesome.

And Abbie-the-nearly-dead-ninja was such a riot! (Even though I first read that over a week ago, I still giggle thinking about it.)

Occupant · Post by **Occupant** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:47 pm

Tom the Fanboy wrote:I've never had that problem though. Every time I play a caster I have a number of mundane weapons (crossbow is your friend) or magic items to supplement my spells. It could be that my GMs were not pushing the encounters to the limit though. We never went through any modules or extensive dungeons after all. I can only think of one dungeon my party had to actually camp in, and that was way back in AD&D.

Last time we tried to camp in a dungeon we heard the goblins organizing, armoring up, and calling for the Ogre. We hightailled it out and camped after a forced night march.

Narf the Mouse · Post by **Narf the Mouse** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:28 pm

Thing is, a caster forced to use a crossbow means they are now a third-rate archer.

Aldagrim · Post by **Aldagrim** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:07 pm

Narf the Mouse wrote:This comic needs a 'Made of Win and Awesome' sticker.

Like this?

Weregeek copyright Alina Pete.
Badge design copyright 2007 Thomas Austin. Permission given to Alina Pete for use as seen fit.

Narf the Mouse · Post by **Narf the Mouse** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 4:08 pm

Yeah, like that.